Human Rights Council (UNHRC) 2018

TOPIC A: “Situation of the minority Rohinya Muslim population in the Rakhine State of Myanmar”

The problem due to be discussed was lit in 1948, when the Myanmar government banned the document issuing for the Rohingya people. Consistently, the regulation on this matter become more and more strict, so that the majority of this people lives nowadays in an almost-total lack of legal protections, as citizens of no state. The argument used by the government was that all 1.1 million rohingya, originarily from Rakhine state, aren’t legally myanmaru and therefore they are considered ilegal immigrants in the eyes of their citizens, and Myanmar has no duty to deliver any basic supply nor have they any rights in the country (to work, to have any access to education or health systems…) and their properties are claimed by the government. Furthermore, evidences have been gathered of the strict control of the populations’movements and even restrictions to marriage and births.
Since the 1970s, a number of crackdowns on the Rohingya in Rakhine State have forced hundreds of thousands to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, as well as Malaysia, Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries. During such crackdowns, refugees have often reported rape, torture, arson and murder by Myanmar security forces.
After the killings of nine border police in October 2016, troops started pouring into villages in Rakhine State. The government blamed what it called fighters from an armed Rohingya group. The killings led to a security crackdown on villages where Rohingya lived. During the crackdown, government troops were accused of an array of human rights abuses, including extrajudicial killing, rape and arson – allegations the government denied.
In November 2016, a UN official accused the government of carrying out “ethnic cleansing” of the Rohingya. UNSC hasn’t gone anywhere further than expressing its “preocupation” on the suspected ethnic cleaning, never authorising any measure to be taken on Myanmar. As delegates, you’ll have to discuss this difficult topic and take part in important decissions to protect Human Rights, the rohingya as refugeed and endangered people, and their survival as ethnic group.

TOPIC B: “Human Rights and Climate Change”

Climate change impacts, directly and indirectly, an array of internationally guaranteed human rights. States (duty-bearers) have an affirmative obligation to take effective measures to prevent and redress these climate impacts, and therefore, to mitigate climate change, and to ensure that all human beings (rights-holders) have the necessary capacity to adapt to the climate crisis. Climate justice requires that climate action is consistent with existing human rights agreements, obligations, standards and principles. Those who have contributed the least to climate change unjustly and disproportionately suffer its harms. They must be meaningful participants in and primary beneficiaries of climate action, and they must have access to effective remedies. In order to foster policy coherence and help ensure that climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts are adequate, sufficiently ambitious, non-discriminatory and otherwise compliant with human rights obligations, Delegates should take part in this matter through a resolution that represents a step for the survival of people around the world.